VESSELS OF CALL ON THE COAST.

West Coast Times, Issue 112, 26 January 1866, Page 2

VESSELS OF CALL ON THE COAST.

We have besn favored with wh.it appears to us to be a valmblo hug^cstiou, from a gentleman who is intimately acquainted with the whole coast of (he Middle Island, and is paiticulaily cognisant of ihe capabilities of the various ports and boat harbors on the West Coast. He was for .some time a resident in the sister Province of Oiago, and that in her palmy days, and &t;\tes that great benefit was experienced by that province (even before the gold-diggings broke out) by subsidizing crafts oi 1 Vessels periodically to visit her then infant ports. 15y t,o doing, these vessels opened up ihe^e ports, and als,o opened up considerable districts of country. Our informant suggests that like and greater benefits would be experienced by WestLuut if she could induce the Canterbury Government to subsidize s>te:un vessels, or .swift sailing crafts even, to call at stated periods at all the ports on the West Coast. These ports, it may be premised, our informant states, extend from the harbor of the Seal ltock-, as laid down in Stokes and Dray's charts, on the south, to say, the Ijidler River on the north. The .subsidy to be granted would not require to be large, and for steam vessels it is believed tht' grant of coals alone would be sufficient. It should be a part and portion of any contract to be entered into that the diilbreut vessels employed should carry a certain limited amount of provisions, stores, liquors, &c, to provide for the requirements of the various bodies of explorers, miners, &c, located on our coast line. Of course the owners of tlii) various vessels chartered or employed would reap the benefit of the profits winch would accrue from the sale of those stores, &c. Il is a well known and patent fact that many industrious, respectable and experienced miners, have been actually driven from this coast by the hardships "they have experienced in their researches and labours, but chiefly by tho want of tho common necessaries of life — unpurchasable at any pri'-e. This is not as it should be, and it is high time that now Government should begin (for they have noi yet actually begun) to do something to develope the ve»oura,'3 of AVestland. Tho speculation, to call it so, would pay not only Government, but private contractors or advent urers ; for it is most necessary our rivers ha 1 proper ferries, if not bridges, placed on or across them, and that the explorers, &c, of what was so recently a torn incognita, were at least insured against death by actual starvation. We draw attention to our informant's suggestions, as, probably, if they arc properly acted on great good will result, to Canterbury in general, and to "Westland in particular, and in all probability they may aid in more speedily developing and opening up what may yet turn out to bo one of the largest and moat lucrative gold-tldds in the known world.